Evan Ferguson F Roma (loan from Brighton) b.2004

[Nesta99]

Yeah its all to rational and civil, Sooo one goal a goalscoer doesnt make, useless!

[Eirambler]

Taken off at half time at home to Napoli after a poor first half. He looks very one dimensional as a striker these days to be honest. When teams sit deep as Napoli did in the first half he seems to just succumb to it, he did more or less nothing other than run in a straight line from half way to the Napoli box and back all half. Not much effort to drop wide to get on the ball more or anything like that. Now, he could be being told to play that way, but it's been a feature of his game over the last year or so playing for Brighton, West Ham and Roma. At this point I'd like to see him drop down to a lower level where he can be more effective and then hopefully build himself back up over time, as Parrott is doing. Whether his contract/wage allows that to happen is questionable though.

[Razors left peg]

Taken off at half time at home to Napoli after a poor first half. He looks very one dimensional as a striker these days to be honest. When teams sit deep as Napoli did in the first half he seems to just succumb to it, he did more or less nothing other than run in a straight line from half way to the Napoli box and back all half. Not much effort to drop wide to get on the ball more or anything like that. Now, he could be being told to play that way, but it's been a feature of his game over the last year or so playing for Brighton, West Ham and Roma. At this point I'd like to see him drop down to a lower level where he can be more effective and then hopefully build himself back up over time, as Parrott is doing. Whether his contract/wage allows that to happen is questionable though.

He was very poor yesterday. I wonder how much of it is the constant stop start. Hes hasnt got a run of games together in what seems like 2 years and that has to have hindered him. Everything I always thought he was brilliant at seemed to be missing yesterday. He seemed to react rather than anticipate to balls coming forward, his movement in the box was non existent and his touch was poor when he did receive it. He looks nothing like the player he was.

Not willing to write him off by any means, I just hope he stays injury free for the rest of the season now and lets see what that brings

[rebelmusic]

I'm convinced at this point he needs to follow Parrots example and go play in a smaller league with less expectation on his shoulders. He looks almost afraid of the ball these days unless he's playing for Ireland. The performance drift between club and international with him reeks of confidence issues and possibly being over trained psychologically. He needs to get back to basics

[Fixer82]

I was at the Armenia game and found Ferguson's drifting back into midfield quite frustrating. He just wanted the ball but when the ball broke, he wasn't up the field where he needed to be.

Maybe a smaller league would suit him where he can just concentrate on being a striker who scores when he gets the opportunity.

[Eirambler]

Gazzetta dello Sport apparently reporting that Roma's game tomorrow against Cagliari will be Ferguson's last chance to make an impression before a decision is taken whether to terminate his loan in January or not.

[John83]

Anyone know if they're a credible paper or a gossip rag? Not the finest sign either way.

[tetsujin1979]

Reports in England that Brighton's Greek striker Tzimas will be out for a few months and Brighton are looking at bringing Ferguson back to replace him

[Eirambler]

This all appears to be heading towards Ferguson warming the Brighton bench for the second half of the season. Hopefully not, but it looks the most likely outcome right now.

[Buckett]

A bit unfair of them to say this is his last chance and he's on the bench!

[pineapple stu]

Anyone know if they're a credible paper or a gossip rag? Not the finest sign either way.

It's the main sports paper in Italy isn't it? Would have thought that'd give it a fairly good standing, though wiki says "With some 24-28 pages out of 40 devoted to the sport on a daily basis, much of the journalism is speculative and sensationalist rather than the pure reporting of matches", which I guess makes sense.

That said, it wouldn't be particularly surprising if it was the case. He's not really made much of an impression so far, even for a team that's generally struggling for goals.

[Eirambler]

Half an hour and no goals for him today. Arguably mitigating circumstances in that Roma were down to 10 men, but it's still another blank to add to his miserable stats. Will be interesting to see if that's his last outing in Italy.